USRowing has permanently revoked the membership rights of Thomas Saquet, a 58-year-old New Orleans man facing 246 child sexual abuse material-related counts across two Louisiana parishes. The ban bars him from events, programs and competitions under USRowing’s jurisdiction. Saquet, a former treasurer of the New Orleans Rowing Club, was first arrested in August; the criminal case later grew to include hundreds of additional counts.
The USRowing Safe Sport Discipline Records list a “permanent revocation of all USRowing membership rights” for Saquet. The listing says he is ineligible for membership and participation in any capacity in events, programs, activities or competitions under USRowing or its member organizations. USRowing describes itself as the nonprofit governing body for rowing in the United States and is recognized by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the International Rowing Federation. Its disciplinary list says permanent bans also cover activities of affiliated organizations, regattas and clubs.
How Sport-Safeguarding Actions Differ
The U.S. Center for SafeSport says its response to a report begins with an assessment and may proceed to an investigation, a finding and a sanction if appropriate. That general description does not establish which process led to USRowing’s action against Saquet, and it does not establish facts in his criminal case. The Center’s 2022 annual report says 482 individuals were sanctioned for SafeSport Code violations that year. That annual aggregate does not describe Saquet’s case.
The case traces back to Aug. 27, when the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office announced that Thomas John-Hanna Saquet, of Freret Street in New Orleans, was arrested in Jefferson Parish on three counts of possessing child sexual abuse material depicting children under 13 and seven additional counts involving child sexual abuse material. Investigators said they identified 10 images and videos containing the material, three of which involved children under 13, and said agents identified Saquet as the subscriber of a Kik account used to send images and videos of child sexual abuse material to other users on the platform.
Charges Across Two Parishes
Charges Across Two Parishes The Louisiana Attorney General’s Office says Saquet was arrested and booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center. KSLA reported that he was rebooked on Sept. 24 on 236 additional counts: 233 involving victims under 13 and three other possession counts. Those reports describe the same total of 236 additional counts; together with the 10 counts announced in August, they bring the total to 246.
Court records cited by KSLA show Saquet was released on a $105,000 bond after a Nov. 4 hearing in Orleans Parish. The station reported that task force agents apprehended him in Jefferson Parish and that authorities confiscated and searched his phone during the investigation into online activity traced to his Freret Street home. The Attorney General’s Office has said the investigation is ongoing and that all persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Club Role and Pending Court Date
Online tax records cited by the station show Saquet served as treasurer of the New Orleans Rowing Club in 2025, though the club’s leadership page currently lists neither Saquet nor anyone in a treasurer role. Per the same account, an online biography describes Saquet as having started rowing at Tulane during the tail end of the Reagan administration, later rowing on waterways including the Thames, Vltava, Sava, Elba, Amstel, Danube and Lacul Herestrau before moving overseas ahead of Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election and eventually returning to New Orleans in recent years with his wife and daughter.
KSLA reported that Saquet’s bond conditions require him to remove all computers from his home, prohibit him from possessing electronic devices and require him to surrender his passport pending trial. He is due back in Jefferson Parish court on Nov. 23.
